5/07/2010 @ 4:00PM

Interning When All They Ask You To Do Is File

Not all internships are what they’re cracked up to be. All too often you’re promised glamorous, or at least challenging and instructive, work and find yourself doing nothing more than running errands, making coffee and filing. You thought you’d be involved with serious projects.

What are you to do if you find yourself in that fix? The first step you should take is preventive–before you even land the internship–say many college career counselors. Your best bet at warding off clerical tasks is to define your goals before your search for an internship. Once you’ve found and applied for your top picks, be sure to know your objectives before heading to the interviews.

Students have a golden opportunity to discuss their goals at the end of an interview, says Greg Iaccarino, career and internship adviser at the University of Wisconsin. That’s when most interviewers solicit questions. Ask what kinds of projects previous interns were given and discuss what specific ideas they might have for you. Be specific and prepared; don’t just ramble and generalize. If you show yourself to be well prepared and eager to work hard, the interviewer will be more likely to let you take on serious projects.

Once the internship starts, make sure you’re really being given the kinds of tasks you discussed in the interview. If not, you may need to talk to your internship director. It may be a difficult discussion to have, notes Janice Morand, project manager for the Internship and Career Center at the University of California, Davis. She warns to be sure you don’t whine to your supervisor; rather, show that you want to help the company. You may be surprised by what you hear.

“I’ve had students who came to me and said they didn’t do anything at their internship,” Morand says. “Then their employer would call and say they were the best intern in a long time, and they couldn’t wait to hire them.”

Even if you weren’t clairvoyant enough to discuss your goals before the internship, you still can work to make the best of the situation.

Always remember to perform every task to the best of your abilities, says Jamie Fedorko, author of The Intern Files–even if that means making a killer cup of coffee. “No matter what your responsibilities are, you have to execute those tasks 100%,” he says. “If you don’t, asking for more sounds counterproductive.”

Once you’ve done the duties asked of you, Fedorko suggests, compile a list with two columns. On one side, put down the projects you expected to be taking on, and on the other what you’re actually doing. Once you’ve completed the list, ask yourself how realistic your expectations were for an intern. If you think they did sound reasonable, discuss the possibilities with your coordinator. It might be as simple as asking if, after you get coffee, you can take notes during the meeting.

Why just that? “The idea is, the more you get involved with little things, the more you’ll be able to get involved with other things,” Fedorko says.